Surface RUST: What’s Coming in RUST’s September 2026 Update
September’s RUST 2026 Update isn’t built around a headline monument, weapon, or sweeping new system. Instead, Facepunch appears to be targeting several existing parts of RUST at once, such as base upkeep, monument progression, remote trading, resource gathering, healing, crafting, vehicles, and dozens of world items.
If we had to describe the patch in a single word, “refresh” probably fits best. Some of these changes are cosmetic, others are quality-of-life improvements, and a handful could meaningfully alter how groups progress through a wipe. As always with staging-branch coverage, everything below remains subject to change before the official September 3rd release.
New Items & Assets to Look Out For
HQM Nodes & Pickups
After years of obtaining High Quality Metal Ore primarily from Metal Nodes, Giant Excavator, recycling, and other established sources, RUST is getting ultra-rare world-spawning HQM nodes and ground pickups.
The current node yield is 400 Metal Ore and 20 High Quality Metal Ore, while the ground pickup yields 5 High Quality Metal Ore. These values are especially likely to change before release.
The Jungle appears to be the primary intended location for both, although the commit wording does not indicate that they are biome-exclusive. During late testing, we also found HQM nodes in desert and temperate areas, but did not find the ground pickups outside the Jungle.
Medical Honey Bandages
RUST is also getting a new early-game healing option that sits between the classic Bandage and stronger Tier 2 medical items. Medical Honey Bandages are unlocked through the Tier 1 Workbench and must be crafted within range of one.
Each use currently restores 8 health instantly, adds another 6 healing over time, and stops up to 50 bleeding. The item also appears to reduce poison by 4 and radiation by 5 per use, although those secondary effects are still poorly documented in-game.
TC Upkeep Taxation
One of the most consequential changes currently being tested is a new upkeep penalty tied to the number of players associated with a base through Tool Cupboard authorization and code locks.
Groups with four or fewer players are not charged additional upkeep. Larger groups begin accumulating extra upkeep as more players are added. Based on the current implementation:
- 1-4 players: 0% additional upkeep
- 5-10 players: +2% upkeep per player above four
- 11+ players: an additional +4% upkeep per player above ten
- The current maximum appears to be roughly +300% additional upkeep at very large group sizes
- Removing a player does not immediately reduce the tax; the system retains that player for 24 hours before recalculating
- Upkeep-tax information can be viewed by hovering over the Tool Cupboard information in-game
The exact calculation is still worth monitoring closely in staging, particularly once a group moves beyond 10 players. We will update this section if Facepunch changes the formula or exposes clearer in-game examples before release.
Red Keycard Monument Blockades
Red Keycard progression will also be slowed at the beginning of a wipe unless players are willing to raid through a new Monument Blockade. These temporary structures are placed in front of Red Keycard rooms and can be destroyed with explosives.
At writing, one blockade requires either:
The blockades currently have a 1,440-minute decay grace period, or 24 hours. After that, they lose 1 health per minute from a 100-health pool. If those values remain unchanged, the blockade would naturally disappear after roughly 25 hours and 40 minutes.
That makes this less of a permanent progression lock and more of an early-wipe gate: organized groups can pay to break through it, while everyone else can wait for the blockade to decay.
Attack Helicopter & Hot Air Balloon Armor Degradation
The protective armor panels on Attack Helicopters and Armored Hot Air Balloons can now visibly degrade under sustained player fire. As individual panels are destroyed, occupants become exposed and can be shot through the newly opened sections.
The change should make concentrated fire more meaningful against armored aircraft rather than leaving passengers fully protected until the vehicle itself is lost.
Metric Ton of World Item Updates
When we use the phrase “Ton,” we mean it semi-literally; I’ve been doing this a while, and I can’t remember the last time this many items, formerly appearing on your base floor as a burlap sack, have received real-world item representations.
Some of these items are also on the list of general refreshes for function and aesthetics, so we’ll lump them in as well. We are also including items that might previously have had a world item representation but have been optimized to be less resource-intensive than the burlap sack.
We couldn’t possibly capture them all in a single image, and some are still works in progress, but we will try to do a full listed accounting just below:
- All Electrical and RF Switches, Cells, Combiners, and the like
- All Workbench Upgrade items
- Button
- Corn
- Counter
- Digital Clock
- Door Controllers
- Fishing Tackle mission item
- Flare
- Flashlight
- Fluid Switches, Splitters, Combiners
- Heaters
- HBHF Sensor
- Hopper
- Igniters
- Industrial Combiners, Splitters, Crafters, Conveyors and Adapters
- Keys
- Ladder
- Landmines
- Laser Detector
- Moustache
- Most seasonal machines (snow, smoke, etc.)
- Pressure Pad
- Salvaged Hammer
- Seismic Sensor
- Sleeping Bag
- Small Shark
- Small Stashes
- Tincan Alarms
- Torch Holder
- Tuna Can Lamp
- Weapon Racks
- Wooden Floor Spikes
Everything Else
Everything else listed below will be items already in the game, with minor changes to the item itself, its use, its cost to create, or its method of obtaining.
Lootable Crate Visual Upgrade
The most commonly looted crates are receiving quite the facelift. Some know these as Brown Crates, Elite or Military Crates. Their loot tables remain the same, as do their relative locations at monuments. The only thing being changed is their look.
Gear Crafting, Item & Stat Changes
Once again, a lot here with some last-minute changes that haven’t even been unpacked yet. This might not be an all-inclusive list, but we’ll add what we find.
- Semi Automatic Pistol – 2 HQM crafting increase, damage decreased over distance
- Heavy Plate Helmet – crafting cost doubled to 2 sheet metal, 8 HQM, sounds like your head is inside a coffee can when worn
- Full Wood Armor set is now a skinnable set
- HMLMG – Crafting cost reduced from 60 HQM to 30 HQM, comps remain the same
- Hazmat – Crafting cost HQM decreased by 1, Tarps decreased by 1
- Prisoner Hood swapped from Tier 1 to Default blueprint
- Mortar crafting cost reduced by 5 HQM and 2 Pipes
- All arrow types given a new world model / icon
- All fireworks given a new icon
- Hunter and Fish Pies had their Mushroom requirement reduced from 2 to 1
- Big cat, hunter, pork, fish, and chicken pies had their durations doubled
- Hunter pie had its bleed reduction increased from 75% to 90%
- SMG Body drops increased; Rifle Body drops decreased to promote mid-game
- Most Grenade-type items have had their max stack sizes decreased
- F1s 5 > 3
- Bee nades 5 > 3
- Flashbangs 5 >3
- Molotovs 5 > 3
Random Skinning Craft Function
A function has been added to the crafting user interface. When selected, the item that you are crafting will instead be crafted with a random skin that the crafting player owns. This can be undone by simply selecting a specific skin.
New Clan Achievements
Not much on this yet, except to say that I need to confirm if these are active on live or not, but it’s nearly impossible to tell at this point because my staging and live achievements lists look identical. Either way, these 3 achievements are in the game regardless.
Drone Marketplace Delivery Now Requires Power
As an extension of last month’s Power Plant grid features, the marketplace drone system at Bandit Camp and Outpost now appears to require a minimum charge of 50% before remote drones can travel to and from external vending machines.
That charge is accumulated passively through the grid system while Heavy Fuses are active. Once the marketplace reaches 50%, shown in the upper-left corner of the drone interface, deliveries function as before. When the system lacks power, a red power indicator appears on the marketplace.
If this makes it into the live patch, it may be one of September’s most impactful changes. Remote trading has allowed players to buy and sell with very little physical risk; tying that convenience to the electrical grid creates another reason to engage with monuments and leave the safety of a base.
Radioactive Water Damage Buff
Radioactive water drawn from Radtown has received quite a sizable buff against players wearing non-hazmat kits. The numbers are still being worked on here, but early indicators point towards “significant”.
Event Saving
The way that the commits on this are worded, we are led to believe that if you are in the middle of doing an event, say Heli or Bradley, or Cargo, and you get to the crate spawn portion, those crates should no longer disappear, despawn, or, in some cases, reset if the server happens to restart right then. This has been an ongoing issue for years, and we hope this sort of business is a thing of the past.
Misc. Rapidfire Changes
- SAM sites are much more effective against all drones flown into their airspace, with an intercept time described as 2.25x.
- Swamp trees, which before were abysmal for farm output, are having their wood output increased from 300 to 1000.
- You can now Tokyo Drift in cars, with the inclusion of a handbrake (Ctrl Key), on top of other optimizations and improvements.
- Rumor has it there will be a Glass AK DLC potentially released in September.
For our testing purposes, we could not get the items to load in-game. Kept giving me in-game errors. I will give it a try again tomorrow.We were finally able to get these to load towards the end of our initial testing phase. In total, there are 5 variants, all with the same general aesthetic and a semi-translucent opacity that we haven’t seen before in an AK skin. These are Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, and Pink Diamond. - Above-ground rail network tracks are already patched or were patched to address errors in August’s patch. Some corners were causing locomotives to get stuck.
- Finally, the F1 Item Menu is now organized alphabetically by category. Most won’t even notice, but boy did I.
Gear, Weapons & Loadout Updates
No new gear appears to be added in September, but we do have things like the Medical Honey Bandage. Here is what we can see in-game right now.
- Medical Honey Bandage – “Heal yourself and others with this medical honey bandage. Left click heals you, right click heals others.” All details are listed above in this article.
- Aiming Module – “An aiming system computer module for MLRS vehicles and satellite control terminals.” This is the previously named MLRS Aiming Module, now renamed. Nothing else about it has changed.
- White Boomer – “A very large mortar type firework with a white starburst.” Late-addition firework; not sure why it was added at this point. Assume it is retroactively given to those with the Large Fireworks Pack DLC.
What’s Next?
Beyond September, development continues across several longer-term branches. The Livestock branch has seen work involving seagulls, frogs, jellyfish, and other wildlife, while the Dogs branch continues to receive attention. Personally, I still want cows. And with any luck, my real-world pupper will eventually have an in-game counterpart.
The Halloween DLC and Scrap King building skin have also surfaced in recent commits, though neither should be considered confirmed for September yet.
As always, development can change quickly between staging and release. If we missed something, join our Discord and drop us a line.
